via hollywoodreporter.com
The thriller is the latest from hit factory Blumhouse, which is making the movie with Smart Entertainment and Nuyorican Productions. Universal will distribute.
Kristin Chenoweth is in negotiations to join the cast of The Boy Next Door, a Blumhouse thriller starring Jennifer Lopez.
Rob Cohen will direct the micro-budget movie, which will be distributed by Universal. Blumhouse is making the movie with Smart Entertainment and Nuyorican Productions.
Lopez will play a newly separated mother who finds herself attracted to the teenage boy who moves in next door and befriends her son. When she starts and then abruptly ends their illicit romance, he’s not ready to let her go -- in a very Fatal Attraction kind of way.
Chenoweth will play Lopez's best friend.
Barbara Curry wrote the script; Jason Blum, Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Benny Medina and John Jacobs are producing. Zac Unterman is serving as an executive producer.
Next Door is due to shoot this fall.
The movie is the latest collaboration between Blumhouse and Universal, who last worked together on The Purge, the $3 million thriller that grossed more than $64 million domestically. Blumhouse is additionally coming off the $40-plus million opening of Insidious: Chapter 2, which cost around $5 million to make.
Chenoweth has made a career of skipping from stage to big screen to small screen while also soaring with a singing career. She originated the role of Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked, earning her a Tony nomination and starred in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, for which she won the award.
She guest-starred on Glee, starred in Pushing Daisies and G.C.B., and is voicing a character in Rio 2. She also wrote an autobiography titled A Little Bit Wicked, which hit the New York Times best-seller list.
She is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment and attorneys James Adams and Julie Feldman.